Donald Keith Smith Early Adult Life

Donald Keith Smith enlisted in the Air Force on February 28, 1948 and was given Serial Number 13166764. He was sent to basic training at San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas in March of 1948.

On June 1, 1948, after Basic Training, he was sent to Scott Field for Electronic school and Repeater school in Bellevue, Peoria, Illinois. It was basically an amplifier for landline phones.

“I arrived in January 1949 for my first posting at Offutt AFB, Sarpy County, Nebraska. It was during a terrible winter.”

“Later that year in Aug of 1949, I was assigned to a detachment at the ammunition factory site in Mead, Saunders County, Nebraska, where all long-range communication equipment was located. Back then SAC headquarters had only been here since August of 1948. I worked on Repeaters, radio, and teletype equipment.”

“I met Marie Cernik at the Mead Ordnance Plant and often went dancing at the Dance Island Ballroom at Wanahoo Park in Wahoo while stationed in Mead Nebraska.”

Donald Keith Smith married Marie Magdalene Carol Cernik on June 10, 1950, in Wahoo, Nebraska, when he was 19 years old, and Marie was 19.

Honeymoon

“I was at work when the Air Force called and said I was scheduled for the Korea deployment so ‘where are you?’. I had checked the orders that had been posted and I know Damn well I wasn’t on it to go, but I was going, and I had about 45 minutes to get to town pack my gear and get back. Your Mother was pregnant with Mark, and I thought for sure she was going to miscarry, but she hung on. We took off for the farm and had Ray drive us to the base and just made it in time, we got on a truck to take us to Offutt Air Force Base and started to pull out when the orderly room clerk came running out yelling and said the shipment had been canceled. That was a relief since it was December of 1950, just after the Chinese had jumped in, so nobody was very eager to go.”

Mead Nebraska Ordnance Factory as a Civil Servant Ammunition Inspector

Dad with parents

“After serving 4 years in the USAF, I was discharged on a Friday (2/29/1952) and started on a Monday at the Mead plant where they made bombs, bazooka rockets and howitzer shells. I wasn’t making them I was in Civil service as an ammunition inspector.”

Don working on some IBM equipment. Kind of looks like Jack Nicholson.

“The plant closed 2 years. later and I was offered a transfer to White Sands, New Mexico but I had no desire to go there (A-bombs you know) so I saw an advertisement for IBM. I had no idea what they did or who they were, but they were looking for guys trained in electronics so interviewed and got a job. Took a $1000/year pay cut, but thank God, I took the job.”

Dad Field Engineering class of 1959

Donald Keith Smith served in the military on October 14, 1962, in Bellevue, Nebraska, when he was 31 years old.

“One of our biggest ‘Customers’ was SAC HQ in Bellevue Nebraska. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, I was still a working guy at SAC and I and a couple of other Field Engineers were locked in the underground and they were running the War Plan program ready to go if necessary. Of course, we were listening to everything that was happening, and a hell of a cheer went up when the Russians turned back. Really scary particularly since your mother and you guys were at home while I was pretty well protected.”

Cuban Missile Crisis

“I was a manager when JFK was assassinated on 11/22/1963 but I was at SAC and was locked in again. This time things didn’t go quite so smoothly. After it was locked up, they discovered that they didn’t have anyone from the company that could take care of the HUGE generators used for backup power, so they opened up again and got them in.”